To fight racism, we need to start at the beginning: with our own name

Friday, 28 October 2022

Stuff's NowNext survey asked its audience the tough questions about racism and the value they place on Māori culture. (First published April 2022)

Joel Maxwell is a Pou Tiaki reporter at Stuff.

OPINION: Sometimes in life you have to get your head out of the reeds and look at the entire sealand.

In June, the Māori Party handed over to Parliament its 70,000-signature petition to adopt Aotearoa as our official name. Eventually the reo Māori names of all towns, cities and places would be restored. Now the petition has been referred to the Māori Affairs select committee.

Please, before we make any hasty changes, I would ask that we consider our beautiful historical and frankly spiritual homeland: Zeeland.

**READ MORE:

Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, who has backed the petition to change New Zealand’s name to Aotearoa. (File photo)

* Mixed views on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, support for Aotearoa new NowNext survey finds

* Aotearoa, Nu Tīreni, New Zealand – it's a complicated issue

* Threats and abuse hurled at Kiwi business after rebranding with te reo Māori name

The banner of the Dutch province of Zeeland, much of which lives below sea level.

* The Aotearoa debate: It's time for a name change

Joel Maxwell: “Perhaps this is exactly what we should be doing. Starting at the beginning.”

We were named after the westernmost part of the Netherlands. You know, right there – across the Atlantic, poking London in the cheek. Basically they’re our neighbours, if not physically, then culturally.

Our namesake’s Latin motto is, of course, Luctor et emergo, (I struggle and emerge), and who of us doesn’t? I whisper the words like a Hogwarts spell every morning as I try to summon the energy to get out of bed. Meanwhile, the really hardcore Zeelandophiles among us can stick to the Dutch translation, Ik worstel en kom boven. I hope I got that right, but you know me: I always worstel with my spelling.

Zeeus Volkslied (Zeelandic Anthem) is of course our provincial anthem. I sang the immortal line “Ik worstel moedig en ontzwem!” (I struggle bravely and swim) as my child was born.

But seriously, living below sea level has obviously had some impact on the Dutch psyche. Zeeland does, in fact, mean Sealand. How cool is it that we’re essentially named Waterworld – sorry, New Waterworld, or Waterworld II. It’s like we’re a theme park, or the sequel to the world’s second-worst Kevin Costner movie.

Our namesake’s banner includes a lion rising from the waves, which is at least 50% applicable as we, too, have waves. Hell, we used to have easily accessible lions as well. Back in the 80s and 90s, you could drive through lion parks for the thrill of having the beasts casually swat the aerial off your Datsun Sunny, or sink their teeth into your tyres; menace your children through the windows while you flicked Pall Mall menthol ash out the top of the cracked window, and waved them away.

But of course, Abel Tasman presumably didn’t know our lion status when he came for a quick visit in 1642 and “discovered” our islands. Afterwards, some guy from the Netherlands did a drive-by christening of these islands, in the mid to late 1600s, and somehow that name Nieuw Zeeland (subsequently Anglicised) stuck.

In all seriousness, it seems unacceptable. But when it comes to the formation and history of our modern state, unacceptable has been the gold standard.

I initially thought that there were more important things for Te Pāti Māori to be doing than expending energy on name changes – a point that has been raised by others.

Frankly, every day I feel weight of the complex challenges facing Māori, and think there are so many other things to put to right first.

But perhaps this is exactly what we should be doing. Starting at the beginning.

There is something clean and elegant about accepting who we were, and are. We talk about the impacts of structural racism, and I can’t help but think that change starts with the very words we use to define ourselves. Our own name, for instance.

On the map, Zeeland comprises a river delta, fingers of land, fanning out into the North Sea. Brave people settled there, established their history and culture and generations of lives, spanning centuries – mostly below sea level – showing the tenacity of humanity.

Here in Aotearoa we crossed the world’s greatest ocean to find islands already above the waves. We have our own story, our own language, our own history. Let’s embrace them.